Anyone hear both Chord DAVE and Berkeley Reference? Sonic differences on PCM?
- Thread starter Boogieman
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Well, I heard the Chord DAVE at CES 2016, but did not directly compare it to the Berkeley Alpha Reference. The Chord has some nice features, but man, I have to say, the Berkeley Reference has some sweet sounding secret sauce.
What's the MSRP of the Chord DAVE?
What's the MSRP of the Chord DAVE?
audio.bill
Active member
Thanks Bill. It's definitely up there with the Berkeley in terms of price.
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audio.bill
Active member
Mike - I haven't heard the DAVE yet, so I'd be curious about your impressions of its performance. Its designer and early adopters are making claims about its unmatched perception of the depth perspective, which imparts a reality that has previously been unavailable with digital sources. Even though you likely heard it on an unfamiliar system I thought you might be able to share whether you found its performance to be at such a high level as to set a new digital standard, or not. TIA!
mep
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Chord's DAVE retails for $13,300 alone or $16,000 with the matching machined stand. You're definitely paying a premium for the years of research and development.
SMPS? I don't see much there inside.
audio.bill
Active member
That was my point, I also don't see much of the build quality alone to justify the price. Though contrary to popular opinion SMPS power supplies can be excellent and even exceed the performance of a linear supply when properly designed and implemented. Rowland for example has been designing his own power factor corrected SMPS for many years and uses them on his top models which offer exceptional performance. Not just on his Class D switching output designs, but also on his best Class A/B amps.
When I heard it, I did make a mental note of it. I specifically asked "what DAC is that?" It made a good impression.
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bzr
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....Meitner, Soulution... the list is increasing with what is accepted in the industry as top echelon gear as well as the minds developing them.
I similarly thought the DAVe was excellent,,,far better than the Hugo.
I am NOT a lover of SMPS at the VERY highest level. Even Thorsten of IFI does not use it in the AMR stuff and Goldmund would not use it due to their focus on the TIME domain. That said SMPS in the best implementations are still excellent.
Sheesh, looks like maybe at best $200 worth of parts but probably much less except for the chassis. I have no doubt that it sounds great but it is way over priced. I don't care what the R&D costs were. Typical of most high end audio gear. You could cut the price to 1/3, and make up the cost in volume sold. After recently building a Pass B1 preamp kit with about $300 of premium parts including the chassis and hearing how much better it sounds than my previous $6000 Pass X1 preamp I get a little pissed off at the price to performance ratio.
Just curious what specifically you are speaking about.
Also, congrats on the preamp. Any pics? You have to love Nelson Pass.
audio.bill
Active member
Mike - I think he's referring to the Chord DAVE's internals from the picture I included in this earlier post of this thread.
Sorry, I did not mean to steal the thread or go off like I did. The price of audio gear is what it is and what the market will bear.
Audio Bill is correct. I was referring to the picture of the Chord internals. Sorry for the rant. Years ago I had a summer job working for a company that builds the Chyron computers that do the graphics for TV. I worked in the factory doing odd jobs, some soldering and wiring work but also marking up parts for accounting. Its crazy what the mark up is for electronics. Anyway, when I saw the inside of the DAC and the $13k price tag I just about $hit my pants.
Here are the pictures that I posted in the DIY thread on the Pass B1 that I recently built for my son. It sounds awesome and keeps getting better as the Mundorf and Clarity caps break in. I am going to redo the wiring when I add a remote TKD volume pot and pcb. The RCA input and output jacks of the case did not align well with those on the board. New knobs are also in the mix. Pics are on the bottom of the page in the link below. I am probably going to try building another B1 that is balanced with XLR's and a linear power supply to replace the 18vdc wal-wart the Nelson recommend.
http://www.audioshark.org/showthread.php?t=8761&p=156000#post156000
Larry
Audio Bill is correct. I was referring to the picture of the Chord internals. Sorry for the rant. Years ago I had a summer job working for a company that builds the Chyron computers that do the graphics for TV. I worked in the factory doing odd jobs, some soldering and wiring work but also marking up parts for accounting. Its crazy what the mark up is for electronics. Anyway, when I saw the inside of the DAC and the $13k price tag I just about $hit my pants.
Here are the pictures that I posted in the DIY thread on the Pass B1 that I recently built for my son. It sounds awesome and keeps getting better as the Mundorf and Clarity caps break in. I am going to redo the wiring when I add a remote TKD volume pot and pcb. The RCA input and output jacks of the case did not align well with those on the board. New knobs are also in the mix. Pics are on the bottom of the page in the link below. I am probably going to try building another B1 that is balanced with XLR's and a linear power supply to replace the 18vdc wal-wart the Nelson recommend.
http://www.audioshark.org/showthread.php?t=8761&p=156000#post156000
Larry
Anyone have further thoughts or experiences with the Chord Dave? I keep hearing that this is currently the blackest and most accurate DAC especially with respect to depth perception on the market, period. Depth perception accuracy, YES! This is an element currently missing in pretty much all of the digital playback encounters I have experienced. This is an analogue attribute that tape has been traditionally best at reproducing.
Some may argue that native DSD is not really its thing and the Dave performs an ultra high PCM up sample of DSD (900mHz) so that it can perform its filtering array magic.
They seemed to have nailed it with their -350db depth perception algorithms, so it would seem.
I've been skirting skirmishly around digital for awhile, playing around here and there with McIntosh and iFi, reticent about making any serious investment for obvious reasons. Needless to say, have we settled on a bloody transport cable yet or next year it it going to be HDMI and HDBaseT?
But here it appears is something quite evolutionary, not garage built, but rather by a credible company with innovative proprietary technology and a history of measured R&D. Maybe these guys are really onto something...
oh, and it comes in BLACK just like the Lumin U1. Could be a marriage....
Some may argue that native DSD is not really its thing and the Dave performs an ultra high PCM up sample of DSD (900mHz) so that it can perform its filtering array magic.
They seemed to have nailed it with their -350db depth perception algorithms, so it would seem.
I've been skirting skirmishly around digital for awhile, playing around here and there with McIntosh and iFi, reticent about making any serious investment for obvious reasons. Needless to say, have we settled on a bloody transport cable yet or next year it it going to be HDMI and HDBaseT?
But here it appears is something quite evolutionary, not garage built, but rather by a credible company with innovative proprietary technology and a history of measured R&D. Maybe these guys are really onto something...
oh, and it comes in BLACK just like the Lumin U1. Could be a marriage....
Steve - the Chord DAVE is $16,000 USD. That puts it into the entry of rarified air DAC's. Although I heard it at CES (and was impressed), putting it into my system at home would be the real test. I know the distributor well. Maybe he will send me one to try?
Mike
Mike